


14 December

by TheBee



Series: The Bee's 2014 Advent Calendar [14]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Multi-Era, References to Character Death, references to other Doctors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-15
Updated: 2014-12-15
Packaged: 2018-03-01 13:27:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2774687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBee/pseuds/TheBee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ten comforts Susan after she experiences her father's memories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	14 December

**Author's Note:**

> POV: Tenth Doctor (Tennant)  
> WARNING: The Doctor's never polite to himself, when he bumps into himself. And when he's stuck around himself, he resorts to rude names. I'd apologize for the Doctor-on-Doctor bashing, but it's in character.  
> Unbeta'd  
> “Deyhba” = DAY-bah

McGrumpy’s face drained of color and his fingers left their daughter’s temple. She fell, still screaming, to her knees, arms clutched around herself, screams transmuting to sobs. Bow Tie stood near her, hands fluttering, mouth flapping like a fish out of water.

So he pulled his hands out of his pinstriped pockets and knelt beside her, tentatively gathering her into his arms. She didn’t fight him. Instead, her mind reached out to him, brushed against his, and he gave a light touch back, as he had so many years ago with his original Susan. He felt her sharp inhale.

“Deyhba,” she whispered, turning her face into his neck, shoulders shaking, as she clutched at his Oxford and jacket, tears soaking both of them. “Deyhba.”

He felt the shock run from one heart to another. His metacrisis had taught her Gallifreyan.

Deyhba.

_Daddy._

Not Progenitor. Not Sire. Not even Father. No, he’d taught her a Shobogan word. Those Outsiders who, like Leela, lived in skins and furs and had marriages (not alliances) and families (not creches) and love—

_Daddy._

He closed his eyes, and held her tightly, rocking her back and forth, the glow of her mind cuddled up beside his like a camper around the fire. The scent of her, so obviously the outcome of his genetics, so strongly Gallifreyan, called up ancient, paternal instincts he had neglected since his first life. Since his first Susan. And her love for him, for her father, was so bright. So warm. She was so very much like her mother. He imagined, for a moment that she actually was his daughter—his daughter with Rose Tyler. That he had the right to have her love him as her father.

That he could have deserved it.


End file.
